Posted on 04/24/2006 8:22:01 AM PDT by tornado100
Mary McCarthy is a new name on the public's radar screen, although she's apparently been known to some members of the mainstream media (MSM) for quite some time. Well, what has this woman wrought? To any discerning mind, her actions -- unauthorized disclosures of classified information -- are treasonous in nature. According to news reports, CIA officer Mary McCarthy provided classified information to the Washington Post and other news organizations regarding the transfer of terror suspects to overseas prisons for questioning, a practice often referred to as "rendition". The implication is that these suspects would be subjected to rougher treatment in foreign nations than they would on American soil. But, so what? I would assume that's true. Remember, this is a global war on terror, and invariably some of these terror suspects will wind up in the hands of nations other than the US. It's just a fact of life. It's not the job of the US to keep these prisoners -- the vast majority of whom are foreign born -- comfy and cozy in American facilities. We're expecting our allies to pitch in and help us with these prisoners.
Ms. McCarthy previously worked at the National Security Council under the Clinton administration, and was briefly carried over into the current Bush administration before being eased out. Allegedly, she's the individual who provided classified information to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest who subsequently won a Pulitzer Prize predicated upon her work on rendition prisons. According to an MSNBC piece, "Sources said the CIA believes McCarthy had more than a dozen unauthorized contacts with Priest. Information about subjects other than the prisons may have been leaked as well." Ms. McCarthy was fired after failing a polygraph, and her case has been referred to the Justice Department with a view toward further investigation and prosecution. As to Dana Priest, she has received the Pulitzer, imprimatur of the Leftist elites, which also signals that the Left is circling the wagons around her.
Personally, I'm thrilled that they caught this treacherous woman, Mary McCarthy, who's bereft of integrity and had no qualms about undercutting America and its allies in this war on terror. McCarthy's damaging disclosures involved operational information that the US intended to keep under wraps. And we can thank CIA Director Porter Goss, who initiated aggressive actions to uncover individuals within the CIA responsible for leaks to the MSM. Prior to the Goss appointment, it's no secret that the culture of the CIA had been on a downward spiral for years with staff that had been patently co-opted by the political Left, produced rather substandard intelligence analysis, and leaked on occasion with little in the way of accountability. Mind you, it was former CIA Director, George Tenet, a Clinton appointee, who told Bush that WMD in Saddam's Iraq was a sure thing, a "slam dunk". Need I say more on faulty intelligence? Things are slowly improving at the CIA, but it would behoove Porter Goss to get rid of as many of the Left-leaning troublemakers as possible, who are throwing a monkey wrench into the mix at the agency. Then again, they'll probably write books, go on the media circuit, and bash both Goss and President Bush.
No one should be surprised that McCarthy is a Clintonista liberal who is fundamentally at odds with the policies of the Bush administration, and contributed to the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Kerry. Sadly, our nation now has to contend with a bunch of Fifth Column Leftists that are anti-war, anti-America, and more sympathetic to radical Islamists than our wonderful troops. The political Left has this fetish for dirty tricksters and informants, such as McCarthy, who connive to bring down, or at the very least damage, Republican administrations. Essentially, the Left is harkening back to their glory-days of the Watergate era, their primary template for political success. And make no mistake, a "press takedown" of President Bush is most certainly on the minds of the Leftist who now control the MSM and the Democratic Party. That said, you can be assured that Mary McCarthy will quickly become the darling of the political Left.
And so it began. On the Fox News Sunday morning program, Left-leaning pundit Juan Williams looked like he was having an acid flashback as he insisted that Mary McCarthy's release of classified information to reporter Dana Priest was all about McCarthy's First Amendment rights to free speech and her efforts to get out the "truth" to the press. Yep, Williams would have us believe that McCarthy is a noble soul. Also on the panel was Brit Hume, who looked at Juan Williams in utter disbelief. In attempts to bring Williams back to a modicum of reality, Hume explained that the issue at hand was "not an exercise of her (McCarthy's) First Amendment rights". It obviously pertained to McCarthy's "unauthorized disclosure of classified information", which Hume deemed "outrageous". Hume understands that the debate must be kept on the straight and narrow, while the Left-leaning crowd is poised to go off on tangential drivel. Why? Because in this McCarthy matter, the Left doesn't have a leg to stand on.
This is the silly kind of talk about First Amendment rights that we can expect from the political Left as they shimmy and shake and lionize Ms. McCarthy in the coming weeks.
--------------------
It's been nearly 5 months since the NSA leak without an arrest....A sign of weakness which has emboldened the Dems.
Don't hold your breath. Only honorable and dedicated holders of national security clearances get punished for violating the rules.
At first I thought this was about the long-gone great essayist and novelist Mary McCarthy, wife of Edmund Wilson and sister of actor Kevin, who famously went up against "real" Lefty-Stalinint Lillian Hellman in the 60s and exposed her for the fraud she was, which earned Mary a well-publicized lawsuit. The Left , then AND now, would be loathe to lionize anyone as independent-minded as THAT Mary McCarthy.
She's Cindy Sheehan with a security clearance. She should be hitting the talk show circuit pretty soon. Eeycht.
Kent Tyler ...
What has happened to my country? I do not see why this would be a divided issue. Agent McCarthy leaked classified information to a reporter. She is a criminal and should be in jail.
Do Democrats think its OK to leak Classified information is you are not in favor of the policy? Also, who elected Mary McCarthy to anything? She was/is a federal employee and is required to protect Classified information.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.